@arc-77
There’s a brief, tense pause before he forces a pronounced sigh. Leaning forward, he retrieves a stylus from his pauldron, opens up a flim-zine on the caf table, and begins to write.
“First off, it’s Commander now. You’re letting your anxiety get the best of you again, Langley. You know by now Clone Troopers are inherently suspicious, especially here on Coruscant. Took a while for me to warm up to you, after all. I realize tensions are high since the droid invasion, but the war’s almost over. We’re only a few weeks away from victory, if that. Things are gonna be back to normal before you know it, and you can go back to writing about... what’s going on in CoCo Town, or whatever the hell it is you used to do.”
Clicking the stylus off and returning it to its sleeve, he slides the flim-zine back towards Alsaine so she could read his note.
OpSec. Not a good place for this. You have reason to be worried, and you have a right to know why. The following instructions are for one of our dead drops. Advise you gradually tone-down your critical writing until further notice, try not to attract too much public attention. Just in case. Burn this later.
“I digress. The answer is no. Of course I wouldn’t.”
Fordo stands up and walks over to the room’s small kitchenette, turning on a hot plate and digging through some cabinets.
“I’ll get you some tea. How’s that friend of yours, the zeltron?” He snaps his fingers a few times. “Hartley? Haven’t seen her in a while.”
She watched him walk away, set much less at ease than she perhaps naively hoped. The brashness of her visit, the location, the questions she was asking. It all alarmed her to two facts: she was panicking, and she was getting sloppy.
Oddly, his clear assuaging of her primary concern comforted her little. Was that just what he had to say? For whoever may be listening in? Perhaps she should have done this elsewhere, but she was now tied by the social convention of tea. Casually, she discreetly folded and slipped the film-zine into her belt to be properly disposed of while her mind raced in hopes to find a way to address his question without further putting them both at risk.
“She... moved out.” That much was the truth. What she shouldn’t say was that Allie none-to-subtly told her that their apartment was no longer a safe place. Not when the government sent agents to break in, question her, bug the place. There were few places she felt safe. “She went home to pursue some career opportunities. Coruscant...” She paused again, trying to choose her words carefully. “Well, it just doesn’t seem as welcoming as it once did. So, I’m mostly using her room as storage.” Again, choosing to leave out that she was afraid to look for another roommate.
Allie had found Amorie before her show really got too popular. Too much of a risk that she might accidentally open the door to a crazy fan, a critic, or... worse. “Yeah, so it’s just me for now. And my audience, when I’m live. -And what on what I hope to be a cheerier topic, what about your bounty hunter companion? I’ve seen her occasionally down by Jamberri having the occasional meeting with the Guard, are you two still liaising?”
